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Juggurnaut and His Country 


Heathenism in India 


Frederick Wallen Brown 


four years a Missionary in India 


Copyrighted 1894 
By 
FREDERICK WALLEN BROWN 
160 North Delaware Street, 
Indianapolis, Ind, 


BREPAGE: 

This little book is an attempt to meet the many re- 
quests made, during our work in ten States, for some of 
the facts concerning India’s condition and need. It was 
Pfitten during daily journeyings in Western Texas to fill 
appointments, and has no claim to literary style or ability. 
It is simply an attempt to give a few facts about India in 
simple language. It is sent on its mission with the hope 


that it will stimulate many to do more to extend Messiah’s 


Kingdom. 
FREDERICK WALLEN BROWN, 


Los Angeles, Cal., April 23, 1594. 


JUGGURNAUT AND HIS COUNTRY 


HEATHENISM IN INDIA. 


NDIA isa larger country than many have been accustomed to 
think of it. It is about one half the area of the United States. 

In 1890 the population of the United States was about sixty 
millions; in 1891 the population of India was about three hundred 
millions. These millions are divided into different nationalities 
speaking different tongues and having different religions. It 
would be of interest to say something of these different religions, 
but lack of space compels me to confine what I say to the 
Hindus, the largest religious body in India and numbering about 
two hundred and ten millions. 

If any have been thinking of the Hindus as an uncivilized 
people, I do not wish you to think so any longer, for they are not 
uncivilized. When our ancestors were wandéring about in the 
forests of Great Britain clothed in skins, not knowing how to 
weave, the Hindus had the same sacred books they have to-day; 
and were worshiping the same gods then as now; they had the 
same knowledge of weaving and agriculture, using the same 
implements then as now; they had the same knowledge of mathe- 
matics, scieuce and literature then as now, and were going in 
some things further in mathematics than we go in our schools to- 
day; they invented the ‘‘ Arabic Notation,’’ the Arabs carried the 
knowledge of it into Europe, hence its name. 

But says someone, if all this is true, why is it that we have 
always heard that the people of India are such a degraded people? 
There is but one answer to that question. Jt is because of their 
religion, 


aor 


You go to their educated leaders and ask them concerning 
their religion and they will tell you that there are three gods, 
Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Siva the Des- 
troyer. But you goto the great mass of India’s millions, priests 
and common people alike, and ask them concerning their religion, 
and they will tell you there are three hundred and thirty millions 
of gods, and show you the very place in their sacred books where 
itis written. They have names for thousands of these and idols 
innumerable. Their household idols are usually small, while the 
temple idols are often very large. 


Brahma, the first person of the Hindu triad, is not generally 
worshiped; Pushkara in Rajputana is perhaps the only place 
where he hasatemple. The reason of this they say is: That he 
thrice tolda lie and hired false witnesses, and on account of this sin 
the other two gods by their curse deprived him of all worship in 
this world. 


Vishnu, th> second person of the triad is said to have been in- 
carnated on earth nine times. One of these incarnations is 
Krishna. While sitting under a tree he was shot, and his bones 
were mouldering when some pious person gathered them and put 
them in a box where they remained until a king who was earn- 
estly striving to propitiate Vishnu, was directed to form an image 
and place in it these bones with the assurance that the idol would 
become famous throughout the world, because he, Vishnu, would 
dwell in it, and that he should have a rich reward for this 
religious deed. The king desiring to follow this advice, prayed to 
Visvakarma to assist by making the image; the architect of the 
gods consented to do this, but told the king that if anyone looked 
at him or in any way disturbed him while he was at work, he 
would immediately leave the work and that the image must al- 
ways remain as he left it. To this the king agreed, and Visva- 
karma commenced his work. In one night he hewed out of the 
blue hills of Orissa, an immense temple, and was working at the 
image in the temple. The king waited fifteen days and not 
being able to restrain his impatience longer he foolishly tried to 
see the god maker at work, who at once stopped work and the 


—O=—= 


iiiage was left with a most ugly facé and without hands or feet. 

The king being distressed at the sight of such a hideous thing 
went to Brahma, who comforted him with Vishnu’s promise 
that it should become noted throughout the world. The king in_ 
vited the gods to be present at its inauguration, and they named 
it Juggurnaut (Jagarnath) the ‘‘Lord of the World,’’ and thus its 
fame was conipletely established. 


‘JUGGURNAUT 


The City of Puri on the east coast is where the originaj 
temple and idol is, though on a small scale these are reproduced 
in other parts of India. What Jerusalem and the temple was to 
the children of Israel such is Puri and the temple of Juggurnaut 


TO —— 


to the people of all India. A few years ago I visited Puri to wit- 
ness the great car festival at which so many thousands of lives 
have been destroyed in the name of religion and saw the things 
I am about to relate. 

I found an immense temple there, the outer wall of which, 
was built of stone 650 feet wide, 660 feet long and 30 feet high. 
Within this sacred enclosure are more than fifty temples dedicated to 
different gods of the Hindu Pantheon, the principal one of which 
was the great pagoda 210 feet in hight, and covered with indecent 
figures. Within this pagoda on a marble platform or throne 
studded with diamonds the three idols, Juggurnaut, Bularam, and © 
Subhudrah, the brother and sister of Juggurnaut continually re- 
main except when taken out for certain festivals. 

One of these festivals is a bathing festival, when the idols 
are taken out and on a high stone platform, bathed by the priests 
in the sight of great multitudes of people. As a result of this 
exposure the priests say that Juggurnaut takes cold and has a 
great fever; and in order that he may recover from his fever they 


WY ty 


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any Ty 


as um 


ey oe 


Caen on ne S CAR. 


say thatit is necessary that he shall have a change of air, so they 
are going to take him to his summer house a temple a mile or two 
away. But he is the Lord of the World and for him to travel with 
proper dignity it is necessary for him to have a vehicle of proper 
dimensions, so they build him a car of wood, forty feet square, 
forty-five feet high, having sixteen wheels, each nine feet in 
diameter. The first platform of the car is about fifteen feet from 
the ground and on this the idol is placed with other lesser idols 
as attendants. The car is decked out with parti-colored cloths 
and flags and presents a very rude, gaudy appearance. 


This car festival comes either the last of June or the first of 
July according to the phase of the moon. And commences by the 
bringing of the idols out of the temple and placing them on the 
car, for each of the three idols has a car, though the other two 
cars are not so large or so high, neither have they so many 
wheels. I was told that the idols were put on the cars by putting 
ropes around their necks and literally dragging them down from 
their jeweled thrones and then dragging them across the témple 
court through the great gate into the Boro Don or great street, 
and then up an inclined plane to put them in position on the first 
platform of the car. 

I desired to see this done, so waited in the rain until about 
nine o’clock, when I was informed that because of a defect in the 
car this part of the festival would not occur until nearly morning. 


Early in the morning I was on the ground and found an im- 
mense crowd gathered, more than seventy-five thousand; the idols 
were in position on the cars and dressed, and the worship had 
commenced. 

The priests were going among the people with great baskets of 
popped rice and scattering it among them. Then there was great 
crowding and fighting to get a few kernels of this rice. When 
this was over the people commenced making their offerings to 
Juggurnaut and worshiping him. I noticed that whenever an 
extra fine offering was presented, like money, jewels or a silk 
cloth, that the priests would hold it up from the platform so that 
all the people could see how the god was being honored, When 


the crowd would see this, they would put their hands together 
and to their foreheads and bow over very low and worship. 
While I was standing there this was done a number of times. At 
one time my attention was called to a woman who was standing 
near me, by the words she said. When she saw the idol move, 
she cried out words that meant ‘‘Oh he is alive! he is alive! see! 
he moves!’’ I never saw devotion and adoration expressed any 
more pronounced on anyone’s face than on this poor Hindu 
woman’s, who had come more than a thousand miles to see and 
worship this idol. The priests put great stress on the seeing 
of the idol. 

Now to understand what must have led up to her exclaiming 
what she did it will be necessary to say something of the worship 
of this idol and of Hindu theology. 

Some people in America seem to think that the Hindus who 
die never having heard the gospel will be saved. A study of 
Paul’s letters will give you an idea of the heathen in Paul’s day, 
‘‘without hope,’’ and I wish to give you an idea of how it is with 
the Hindus to-day. 

I have yet to see the first Hindu that would not confess that 
he was a sinner. Before I went to India many said to me ‘‘what 
is the use of your going, you will only make their future worse 
instead of better! Those that never heard the gospel God will 
not condemn.’’ I said, “if I find I am making their condition 
worse instead of better I'll go home.’’ All the time I was in 
India I was continually asking the people what condition they 
considered themselves to be in. A very common way of my intro- 
ducing myself was by telling them ‘‘I have come a long ways to 
tell you a wonderful story, but Iam to tell it only to a certain 
class of people, and if any of you are righteous, without sin, it is 
not for you; what I have to tell youis only for sinners, and it is 
this: ‘Godso loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have 


everlasting life.’ Is not that wonderful news?”’ 
NEE Siig, IHG 
“Are any of you righteous ?” 
‘‘No sir, we are all sinners,”’ 


—13— 


I have never seeti a Hindu but who knew that quarrelling, lieing, 
stealing, adultery, murder, abusing parents and bearing false wit- 
ness were sins, and that the punishment for doing such things is 
hell. . 


They have an innumerable number of sacred books telling 
them about their relation to God or the gods and to man, but 
they know not how to be saved from their sins. Every sacrifice, 
every pilgrimage, every austerity practiced indicates their con- 
sciousness of sin anid desire to escape ‘‘the fiery indignations to 
COme, 7 


Going out from this one city, Puri, all over India, there are 
more priests, as missionaries, than missionaries and native 
preachers of all churches in India. These men go all over India, 
(I have seen them in the Himalaya Mountains,) declaring the 
glory of the so-called ‘‘Lord of the World”’ and telling what 
wonderful miracles he performs, and what wonderful salvation 
there is to be obtained by going to Puri, seeing him and worship- 
ing him. They tell the people that if they will go to Puri, see 
Juggurnaut and worship him, they will escape a certain number 
of births, for every Hindu believes that when he dies he is to be 
born again, and this for eight million four hundred thousand 
times. Between the death and the next birth he either is to go to 
heaven to enjoy that or to hell to endure that. Heaven is repre- 
sented to him as a beautiful place of enjoyment; hell is repre- 
sented as a terrible place of punishment —a place of eighty pits, 
each pit having a punishment for a different kind of sin. So you 
see they have some idea of sin. In one of these pits they are told 
they will be placed on a spit and then turned round in a fire that 
lasts a certain number of thousand years. In another pit, they 
must continually walk about, bearing on their heads baskets of 
reeking, rotten human flesh, the juices of which, are represented 
as continually running down into their eyes, their ears and 
their mouths. Nota very pleasing prospect! And aseach Hindu 
feels conscious that he has sinned and must go into one of these 
pits to be punished, he desires to escape if he can. And looking 
forward to his future lives he sees no prospect of doing any better 


—I14— F 


in any of themthan he hasin thislife andas with each one of these 
lives there is a prospect of one of these places of torment he de- 
sires to escape as many of these births as he can. 

These pundas or missionary: priests, take advantage of all 
this and tell the people that if they will go to Puri, see Juggur- 
naut and worship him, that they will escape a certain number of 
these births. If they should die in the city they would escape a 
certain number more, for nothing done in that city is sinful they 
say, because Juggurnaut’s body absorbs all that otherwise would 
be sin, and his body gets so full of the sins of the people that it 
is necessary to give him a new body every twelve years. Last year 
(1893) they gave him a new body, the old body was buried some- 
where in the temple court, and the soul of the idol, a black stone, 
that they say is the concentrated bones of Krishna, is put into the 
new body and then he is ‘“‘the Lord of the World” and capable of 
absorbing the sins of the people for another twelve years. It 
is said that more than 200,000 people were present last year at the 
car festival to see Juggurnaut with his new body. 


Another thing that the pundas formerly told the people, 
but of which you hear but little to-day because of the restriction 
the British government has put upon it, is this: ‘‘If you will goto 
Puri, worship Juggurnaut and present your body a sacrifice to the 
1dol by casting yourself under the wheels of his car and be 
crushed to death, immediately your souls will pass over all the 
intervening births and become absorbed at once into the existence 
of the great Brahm.’’ Andasthis is athing to be devoutly desired, 
formerly thousands of people cast themselves under the ponder- 
ous wheels of Juggurnaut’s car and were crushed to death. 

To prevent the people from doing this, the British govern- 
ment has taken this festival in charge, and every year sends two 
European officers there to see that no one is killed. One of these 
is the Executive Engineer to see that the cars are built properly, 
that there is no danger of their falling over and killing any of the 
great crowd, The other is a Superintendent of Police, who is 
there with companies of native policemen. He stations a com- 
pany of these around each car while it is being pulled along. 


_- 1S 


These stand about fifteen feet estgate from the car and hold in the 
left hand a rope that extends around the car. They stand near 
enough to touch each other, and carry in the right hand a police 
‘billie.’ If any try to crowd up to get at the car the ‘‘billie’’ is 
used as I saw a number of times. For the people would cast 
themselves under the car as they did one hundred years ago if 
they were not thus prevented. 

Now this woman who had comea thousand miles or more 
had undoubtedly heard all of this talk up in her country, and 
when she saw the idol move, undoubtedly she thought, all of 
these things they have told me about him are indeed true, for 
“behold he is alive! heis alive! see! he moves!’’ Thus do the 
priests impose on the the people. 

Three large cables made of the fiber of the cocoanut are at- 
tached to the cars, and the people take hold by the hundreds and 
draw the cars to the summer temple, while the priests blow horns, 
beat drums and gongs, and urge the people to worship. And al- 
most continually you hear shouting and singing from the people, 
“jai Jagarnath ’’—Victory to Juggurnaut. 


The cars are left at the summer temple for ten days, and then 
they are drawn back. Part of the priests have staid at the 
temple with Juggurnaut’s wife, and when the others return with 
Juggurnaut, those at the pagoda will not let the others in with the 
idol because Juggurnaut’s wife is jealous, for he has been away 
for ten days with his sister. After having acted out this abomin- 
able farce in which they have made promises of what this so- 
called ‘‘lord-of-the-world’’ will and will not do in the future; 
they go into the temple and spend the night in such indecent 
worship and songs as the heathen are accustomed to worship their 
gods with, and which decency forbids my mentioning. 


The third person of the Hindu triadis Siva. In ancient 
Hindu mythology, Siva was represented asa man riding the sacred 
bull. Now to show you how sacred this animal is,let me state a fact 
and relate an incident. When missionaries first went to India they 
found there two hospitals, and onlytwo in allIndia. These were not 
erected to care for the lame, the sick, the blind and the leper, but for 


Sah) as 


old and decrepit cows! The Hindus organize societies to protect and 
care for cows while the insane, the blind and the leper are left to 
wander aimlessly about. A few years ago a company of priests 
were going to send one of these sacred animals from one railroad 
station toanother. The priests that were to receive the animal were 
to be informed by telegraph on what train the animal would arrive. 
The priests that were sending the animal were at a loss to know 
how to word the message, for it must be worded -in English, 
What troubled them most was to know how to express the dignity 
of the animal in the English language Finally having consulted 
with others who knew English, they came to the conclusion what 
the proper language should be, and so there went flashing over 
the wires: ‘‘ Look out for God Almighty on the next train.”’ 
This gives you the exact position that they give to these animals, 
that of agod. Itisa greater sin for a Hindu to kill a cow ora 
bull than it is to kill a man, unless that manisa priest. I have 
seen men bring their offerings, prostrate themselves at full length 
before these animals and worship them. 


I said that Siva was formerly represented as a man riding the 
sacred bull, but you can find but very few people worshiping him 
under that form to-day. Itis related of him that he was such a 
licentious god that the other gods cursed him and said that be- 
cause of his wickedness he should be worshiped in another form. 
Under this form he is spoken of as ‘‘Moha Dev,” words that mean 
“‘the great god.’’ The images or idols of ‘‘ Moha Dev” are repre- 
sentations of the organs of generation. My observation is 
that there are more temples dedicated to Siva under this form 
than dedicated to any other god. These temples are covered with 
sculptures and carvings innumerable all representing things and 
scenes of the lowest and most obscene character. The worship 
itself is of the most degrading kind. Paul in the last half of the 
first Chapter of Romans, gives a very good idea of the things 
that the Hindus doin worshiping this idol. Do you know what 
the Hindus say about that first Chapter of Romans? The priest 
say: “that was not originally in the book. When mission- 
aries first came to India and saw the condition of things here, in 


order to make out a good case for themselves they got up that chap- 
ter.”’ There is not a single statement in all that category of 
abominable things which Paul says the heathen do, but what in 
India with my own eyes I have seen, or with my ears heard, that 
which indicates that it is all being gone through with there to-day. 
I have come suddenly upon people in acts of the most indecent 
and obscene worship in the midst of which, they would come up 
before their idol and prostrating themselves at full length pray to it. 


THE GODDESS KALI. 


a 58) a 


Is it any wonder then that the children brought up in the 
midst of such scenes and worship do not have that look of inno- 
cence that children have here at home? An expression you often 
hear from new comers in India is: ‘‘ why is it that we do not see 
that look of innocence on the face of childhood that we do in 
America?’’? They do not need to stay in India long to under- 
stand the why of it. Even free and happy childhood is not 
known until revealed in the lives of the missionary’s children. 


Sivi isrepresented as having a wife, her name is Kali; Calcutta 
is named after her. She is represented as having four arms, in one 
hand the head of the victim she had last beheaded, in another 
the sacrificial knife, and with the others she is beckoning on her 
worshipers. She has a necklace of human skulls, a girdle of 
human hands, and her tongue hangs out of her mouth red with 
blood. A cruel, bloody goddess! Delighting in blood and tor- 
ture, and those who have sinned against her, believe they can 
only appease her wrath by making an offering of blood, in some 
way torturing themselves. There are a variety of ways in which 
they worship her. 

In the town in which I lived the first two years in India, dur- 
ing that time, a man was brought through on a bed not of down 
but of spikes, six to eight inches in length, and sharp to the 
touch. He said he had not been off from this bed of torture for 
years, he was being carried by four men and was on his way to 
Puri. 


A very common way of worshiping Kali is called hook swing- 
ing. An iron hook with a rope attached to it, is hooked into the 
muscles of a man’s back and then he is drawn up and suspended 
fifteen or twenty feet in the air and then swung around. This is 
not a punishment given to him by others, but is done as a volun- 
tary act of worship. Sometimes the flesh gives way and the man 
falls to the ground and his limbs are bruised or broken and some- | 
times the man is killed. The British government has tried to put 
a stop to this, the same as to the burning of widows on the 
funeral pyre of their husbands, the casting of children into the 
river Ganges, and the people casting themselyes under the wheels 


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HOOK SWINGING. 


but they have not su 


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of Juggurnaut 
in these other things. 


men were arrested for having gone through with hook swinging. 
Thirty-six miles south from where I lived the last two years in 
India, at Balasore, is a little piece of French territory one mile 
square. Into this from the surrounding country the Hindus go 
every spring by the thousands, and go through with houk swing- 
ing. Some of my co-laborers visited the the festival and appealed 
to the government to put a stop to this cruel practice. The 
British government offered the French a larger piece of territory 
in another part of India for this little piece of land, in order that 
they might put a stop to this awful thing, but as yet they have not 
succeeded, and there every year Kali is worshiped by hook swing- 
ing. Ifthe man lives to be let down, the rope is cut, leaving the 
hook in the back and the next day he goes about with it in his 
back begging. 


A missionary brother while traveling one day, came to a 
temple by the side of the road and saw the priest of the temple 
looking in upon his goddess ( Kali) and worshiping her. The 
priest had taken his tongue between the thumb and forefinger of 
the left hand and drawn it out of his mouth as far as he could. 
Then taking an iron rod he had run it through his tongue. Then 
taking hold of the rod he had commenced to jerk his tongue. 
When the missionary came up his tongue was bleeding, his chest 
covered with blood, and his face all contorted with pain as every 
little while he gave a jerk to the tongue, each time drawing it 
further and further from the roots. Like a flash it went through 
the missionary’s mind surely a man who had ever heard the name 
of Jesus would never do a thing like that! So stepping up near 
to the priest he said: ‘‘Did you ever hear of Jesus?’’ Appar- 
ently the priest did not hear. Again he addressed him: ‘‘ Did 
you ever hear of Jesus?’’ With astonishment the priest turned 
and looked at the missionary. The missionary said: ‘‘I know 
you can not speak, but indicate your answer by the movement of 
your head. Did you ever hear of Jesus?’’ Slowly the head was 
moved from side to side to indicate that he had never heard that 
blessed name. Do you wonder that it was with a sad and aching 
heart that the missionary left that man thinking of the condition 


of things in America and India! How in America thousands and 
thousands of Christians had been asked time and time again to 
send more missionaries to India, and because they had refused to 
give anything to send them or had given so little that this man 
and thousands like him were still going through with these cruel 
things in worship, never having yet heard the name of Jesus! 
May our heavenly Father forgive us for our lack of loyalty to 
his Son and disobedience, for he said: ‘‘Go ye into all the world 
and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and 
is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be 
damned.’’ And we have not gone and some of us have never 
really tried either to go or send someone who could go. 


Bishop Thoburn relates an incident in the Indian Witness 
that he saw May 2nd, last year. ‘‘ Kight or ten men were march- 
ing along the public road attended by forty or fifty followers, each 
carrying a little arch constructed of bamboo, and ornamented 
with leaves, flowers and peacock feathers. Each of these men 
had a small piece of sharpened iron thrust through his tongue, 
that is the tongue was drawn out of the mouth, and the iron was 
thrust through it at least an inch anda half from the tip of the 
tongue. Then many. of them had hooks thrust through the skin 
and muscles of the back and breast. Some were foaming at the 
mouth, and although their attendants sprinkled water on them 
and seemed to encourage them, yet their suffering must have been 
horrible.’’ That is Hinduism not one hundred years ago but in 
1893. 

Yes it is a dark, black picture! But as dark as I have des- 
cribed it, it is not as black asit really is. It is beyond the power 
of anyone to portray the terrible degredation and superstition of 
this people. Although dark there is a bright side to it, the gospel 
is being taken to them, and to many of them it is proving ‘‘the 


power of God unto salvation.’? I suppose you would like to 
know how such a people asI have been describing, receive the 
gospel. 


Now from what I shall say I do not wish you to think 
that all are ready to accept the gospel likesome that I shall mention, 


for they are not by any means. ‘The priests and all who have any 
thing to gain by idolatry are, as a rule, bitter against Christianity, 
yet asin the days of Christ so to-day the common people hear 
the gospel gladly. 

One evening while preaching the gospel to a company of 
villagers, fourteen of their number cried out, ‘‘what must we do 
to be saved?’ The Word had the same effect upon them that it 
has had upon men everywhere, it pricked them to their hearts. 
When we were ready to leave them, they asked us a few more 
questions. The first one was: 

‘‘Are there many people in your country ?”’ 

‘‘ Ves, about sixty millions.”’ 

‘Do many of them believe what you have been telling to us?”’ 

“Yes the majority of them.”’ 

‘“Have they known it long?”’ 

“Oh! yes, hundreds of years, generation after generation it 
has come down to us, and now we arte here to tell it to yon.”’ 

‘*Are your people a very poor people like we are?”’ 

In that part of India a man would receive six pice for a day’s 
labor; equal in our money to about three cents. 

‘“No, our people are not a poor people like you. Americans 
pride themselves that they are the ‘richest nation in the world.” — 

What do you suppose the next question was ? 

‘“Then,’’ said they, ‘‘ why is it that our fathers have been per- 
mitted to die in their sins and go to hell?’ The very words only 
giving a translation of their language. ‘‘ Then why is it that our 
fathers have been permitted to die in their sins and go to 
hell ; why is it that we have been permitted to grow up and be- 
come men, and perform all the abominable things that we have, 
and never have heard of this way before ?”’ 

If any of you my readers, have been doing nothing to send 
the gospel to that people, how will you answer that question in 
the day of Judgment? And that is not the only time that that 


question has been asked me. More than a hundred times have I 
been asked ‘‘ why is it?’’ and I do not suppose there is a mission- 
ary with any experience in evangelistic work in India, but what 
has had like experiences. 


A few weeks after this while preaching to a larger company 
of villagers about one hundred, some with tears coursing down 
their cheeks, some throwing themselves on the ground, cried out, 
‘what must we do?”’ Said their chief man: ‘‘ Sirs, the reason why 
we have been so very wicked is, we never have heard of this way 
before. Oh! why did you not come and tell it to us before?’”’ 


One day while riding along on horse-back and reading aloud 
from my Oriya New Testament, I noticed that two men were fol- 
lowing, listening to what I was reading; when they saw that I had 
observed them they came around to the side of my horse and bow- 
ing very low, one of them said: ‘‘Sir, what book is that you are 
reading from?’”’? Itold them. And he said: ‘‘ Will you not read 
more tous? Itis the most wonderful book I ever heard of.’’ I 


said, ‘‘certainly,’’ and continued reading as we went along. 
After a while one of them said: ‘‘Sir, our home is yonder at the 
foot of the mountain, we leave the road here.’’ I stopped my 


horse and talked to them a long while, trying to show them that 
Jesus was the Sonof God and their Saviour. I asked them if 
they had never before seen any white men telling the same story 
that Ihad told them. They said: ‘‘Nosir.’’ Isaid: ‘Did you 
never go to any of the markets and hear one of your own country- 
men telling this same story I have been telling you?”’? ‘‘Nosir! we 
never before heard such wonderful news that a man might be 
saved from his sins. Oh! sir, will you not come to our village and 
tell our people what you have been telling us ?’’ 

One of our lady missionaries was telling this good news to a 
company of women who were hearing it for the first time. When 
she had finished one of the women said to her : 


‘* And who told you this wonderful story?”’ 


The missionary replied, ‘“‘my mother told it to me when I was 
a little girl.’’ 


“And who told it to her?’’ 
‘*Her mother.”’ 
“ And who told it to her ?”’ 
“Her mother,”’ 


=~ 24 — 


‘She woman shook her head and said: ‘‘It is a lie, I can’t be- 
lieve it. Itis not like a woman to know something good like 
that and not tell it to her sisters.’’ 

A missionary in Northern India last wiuter ( 1892-3) had 
been going from village to village preaching the gospel, living in 
atent. The hot weather came on and he had to return home. 

About a week after returning home, early one morning before 
daylight, he heard a great commotion in his yard, and looking 
out saw a great concourse of people, men and women. 
And being astonished at seeing the women. Why astonished at 
seeing the women? Because there is not a heathen woman in 
India that has any hope of eternity. My sisters do you grasp hold 
of that thought? Of the about one hundred and fifty million 
heathen women in India there is not one that has any hope of im- 
mortality! Told that she has no soul; considered unworthy of 
being educated. Told that she has not the ability to learn to 
read, and should she learn her husband would die. If her husband 
dies, she is told that it is because she is such a great sinner, and 
the younger she is the greater sinner she must be. And being 
astonished at seeing the women he went to the door and asked: 
‘‘What is the matter?’’ Andsome one replied: ‘‘ Nothing sir, 
only we have heard that you have arrived home, and we have 
come here to become Christians.”’ 


The missionary went out and preached to them, took the con- 
fession of eleven of their number and lead them down to the river 
and baptized them into Christ. He came back and said that he 
would give them an hour to go to the village and get themselves 
something to eat; that he would breakfast and then preach to 
them again. He went in to get his breakfast, but they, instead 
of leaving sat down on the ground fearing they might lose some- 
thing. Having euten his breakfast he preached to them again, 
took the confession of another company, went to the river and 
baptized them, and so on during that day. The next day the 
same way, and the third day likewise. During the third day 
while preaching, he saw three men come crowding down through 
the great crowd and reaching the front, stand there listening to 


what he was saying as though their lives depended upon catching 
every word. Noticing this he addressed some words specially to 
to them. (We talk back and torth very freely there.) These 
men told him that they were sent there by their villagers to ask 
him to conie to their villages and make them Christians. ‘‘For’’ 
said they, ‘‘ you have been preaching in our villages this winter, 
telling us about this Jesus, that he is the Son of God and our 
Saviour, and, sir, we believe you are right and we have been 
wrong. Will you not come and make us Christians? Sir, we 
have taken all of our wooden idols and made a bonfire of them 
and burned them. All of our brass and stone idols we have 
taken, andin solemn procession gone and cast them into the river, 
and there is not another idol in all our villages. Oh, sir, will you 
not come and make ws Christians?”’ 


In writing of this to a missionary in America, he said, ‘‘ this 
is just as important work as that. I can not leave this to go and 
attend to that. For, at the time of writing this letter, I have al- 
ready baptized 3,000. There are more to be baptized, and these 
that have been must be instructed, for as yet they do not 
know what they as Christians are to do. I can not leave this work 
to attend to that. Oh,brother! as you go among the churches will 
you not impress upon them the necessity of immediately sending 
to this great harvest field more missionaries? So that these who 
are ready to accept of the gospel shall have those who shall in- 
struct them and administer unto them the ordinances.”’ 


In that same mission over 40,000 conversions last year, and 
said a prominent missionary, ‘“‘ we had to turn away over 25,000 
people who came asking for baptism, for we thought it was better to 
let them go away as Hindus than to baptize them and let them go 
away thinking that they were Christians and they not know 
what Christians ought to do. Every native that was capable 
of instructing we had instructing someone. Every missionary 
was doing all he could, and if we had only had more missionaries 
we might have made more Christians.”’ 

In one part of India there are now over 10,000 waiting to be 
baptized. In North India they are coming into the church at the 


— 96 == 


rate of over 1,000 a month in just one mission. Says Bishop 
Thoburn: ‘‘Our missionaries are trying to hold back native 
evangelists rather than press them forward. We feel that we 
must take care of our untaught converts, and we are painfully 
aware that we are not supplying their need. If we could have our 
way we would calla halt until the work could become better 
organized, but it seems impossible for us to stop.’’ 


What a sin American Christians have to answer for! Thata 
work like this should have to be hindered and held back instead 
of hastened on, and all because of our covetousness. Christians 
in America have not yet learned the A BC of giving. How any 
one can say that he is a Christian, that he accepts of the New 
Testament as the Word of God and Jesus as his Prophet, Priest 
and King and then be satisfied to give more to keep up the gov- 
ernment of his country and state than he does to build up. and 
extend Christ’s Kingdom throughout the world, and that too 
when the command: ‘‘Go ye into all the world and preach the 
gospel to every creature,’’ is so plainly stated, is a thing I cannot 
understand. 

So many indicate that they think that a large part of the 
money raised for mission work is spent to take care of native con- 
verts that I am constrained to say a few words about the giving of 
uative Christians in India. 

A letter just received from India indicates what a congrega- 
tion numbering about 100 is doing. They pay their own native 
preacher. They raise by subscription over—(if I said how much 
in rupees, annas and pice but few of you would understand its 
value so I will use a term that all will understand ‘‘ days labor.’’ 
Each days labor stands for the amount of money it would take to 
hire anordinary day laborer for one day and he board himself) 
2,000 days labor. 


A congregation with whom I have worshiped more than once, 
in the year 1892-3 did as follows: They supported their own 
native preacher, paying him about 2,000 days labor for the year 
(they numbered about 125). They kept up the repairs on their 
own meeting house, and paid forthe support of three of their own 


— 29 — 


number to go out and preach the gospel to the heathen, and half 
the support of a fourth man—a missionary paying the other half. 
These men gave their entire time to preaching the gospel to the 
heathen and the church gave them their entire support. When 
their thanksgiving service came, they brought to the Lord’s house 
a free-will-offering, amounting to about 1,000 days labor. What 
was done with this? It was sent to America with this request: 
“Use this to send more missionaries to India.’’ Where in all 
America is there a congregation doing proportionately anything 
like this? 


In another part of India a missionary had baptized and organ- 
ized a little congregation of six men. A few months afterwards 
while preaching to them one Lord’s Day, he remembered that it 
was the day that his people in America were observing as ‘‘Child- 
rens Day,’’ so he told them what the children of America were 
doing by saving their pennies to send the gospel to the heathen. 
Then he told them about their own country and countrymen, how 
many of them had never heard the gospel, and how that some of 
them who had become Christians knew enough to go out and tell 
it to others. ‘‘But,’’ said he, ‘“‘they are poor men, they have to 
work early and late to support their families and so cannot go 
any farther than their own villages; but could we say to them, 
‘you go and preach the gospel and we will take care of your 
families,’ they might go and preach the gospel to thousands.”’ 
The men went home thinking about it and in the afternoon re- 
turned with a sum of money equal to about 500 days labor and 
gave it to the missionary—and he said: ‘‘What shall I do with 
this??? The reply was: ‘‘Sir, you was telling us this morning 
the need of our countrymen hearing the gospel and this is our 
offering to make it possible for some one to go and preach it to 
them.’? The missionary said: ‘I can’t accept of it!’ ‘‘Wellsir, 
we know it is very little but it is all we have, there is not another 
rupee in our village.’’ ‘Oh, that is not what I meant!’’ said the 
missionary. ‘‘It is too much for you to give.’’ ‘‘Oh no sir, it is 
not too much for us to give. We have had such a blessing from 
the gospel that we want others to have the same blessing. Itis 


Pas Aye 


tot too much for us to give. Sir, we will go to work and earti 
more money this year and eat less rice that we may have more to 
give next year.”’ 

I have related these incidents to show you something of the 
spirit of native Christians. I would that Christians in America 
would do one tenth part as much personal Christian work or give 
one tenth part as much in proportion to what they have, asdo the 
native Christians that I have known in India, then instead of 
having hundreds we might have thousands of missionaries. 


It is said that in the United States we havea preacher to 
every 300 of the population, a preacher or Sunday school teacher to 
every 45 of the population, while in India there is but one pro- 
testant male missionary to every 500,000 of the population: 
When you have counted together all the missionaries, their wives, 
the lady missionaries, the native preachers, the Bible women and 
the catechists of all the different churches in India you have not 
so many as there are priests going out from Puri to declare the 
glory of Juggurnaut. Take all the Christian workers, separate 
husband from wife, give each a field to himself {in which they 
will be the only worker and each would have 60,000 people to 
minister to. Some people say there is enough to do athome. In 
every city of 60,000 in the United States how many preachers are 
there? 

There are whole districts in India where there is not a 
missionary or a known native Christian. ‘There are over a million 
people to every missionary among the people whose language I 
learned. Says Bishop Thoburn: ‘In the Punjaub alone there are 
twenty million people who have not heard the gospel.’? ‘To say 
that there are two hundred million in India who have not heard 
the gospel, is putting the figures low. 

Realizing the need of more missionaries Mrs. Brown and Isaid 
last summer to the Christian Woman’s Board of Missions: “We 
are ready to return to India. Send us back this fall.” The reply 
came back: “We cannot doit. We are sending four missionaries 
to open new work this year and in undertaking this we do not 
know but we are undertaking more than we can carry out, for we 


are only the servants of the churches and can only do what our 
brethren and sisters make possible for us to do. Wesee but one 
way for youtodo. We believe the reason why no more are help- 
ing in this work is because they do not realize the need. You go 
and tell them these things you have seen and heard, and we 
believe that when they see the need they will do enough more 
than they have been doing that it will be possible for you to go 
next fall.” 

Could we have returned last fallinstead of going into this work 
of visiting the churches we might have preached the gospel to 
thousands of people, hundreds believing, obeying—might have 
been saved. Some of these undoubtedly will die this year, never 
having heard the gospel and go down to perdition. Who is 
responsible for this? Had Mrs. Brown and I said: ‘‘Well the 
sacrifice is too great, we can’t make it. We have been once, now 
it is someone else’s turn;’’ then I believe the Lord would have re- 
quired these souls at our hands. We were not only ready, but 
anxious to return. Then these souls will be required at whose 
hands? Candidly—I will tell you whol think is responsible— 
those of our brethren and sisters who have not given what they 
might have given, so that it has been impossible for us to go, and 
do you do as little in the year to come as you have in the year 
that is past greater condemnation must rest upon you; for after 
all the question is not so much, can the heathen be saved without 
the gospel as can you and I be saved if we do not get the gospel 
to them. 

Are you making an honest attempt to give the gospel to those 
who have it not? If not, why not? 


MAP OF INDIA, 


The black of this map represents the heathen darkness of 
India. Oh how dark itis! The white stars represent the principal 
mission stations. But there is more white on the map in pro- 
portion to black than Christian light and teaching of any kind in 
all India. 

Will you not do more than you have to help put white stars 
on this map? 


